Trusting the Man
by kittikat8531
Summary: Stefan's dead and Aurora is queen, but something is troubling Maleficent still. Will trouble with Diaval finally let her confront those feelings? Please R&R. One-shot, complete.


AN: So this is my first foray into _Maleficent_, brought on by the underwhelming selection of Maleficent/Diaval cuteness. It's probably not much good, given that it is a first attempt, but it's at least moderately cute and I've been trying to work on my fluff anyway. Hopefully someone out there likes it.

Disclaimer: I am not so blessed as to own the film or anything related except a poster they gave me at the theatre.

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Flying had never been so magnificent.

Diaval had always loved his wings and the freedom they granted, even before his mind was human enough to articulate such a complex sentiment, but it was different now. Flying with Maleficent was an experience he never could've imagined. A solitary creature, he had never chosen to embrace the skies with someone at his side. Certainly, he'd never had to push with every ounce of his strength to keep pace, still knowing she was holding back for him. As a bird, everything was simple.

As a man, it had all changed.

They had thought, their little family, that with the end of the curse and the death of the traitorous human king Stefan things would be easy. In some aspects, they were. Aurora was a beloved queen, and while the humans continued to fear Maleficent they began to recognize the way she bowed to her little beastie. The teen had to split her time between the Moors and the human kingdom, but she was always so happy to return to the faerie lands that the time between her visits almost seemed inconsequential. Diaval had been freed from his servitude but elected to remain with them.

Maleficent, though… She was the most changed of all. The sudden return of her wings had saved both of their lives, but it seemed like something had shifted in her heart when it happened. She still let Diaval transition between his forms whenever he seemed to wish it, but when he was human there were long silences he couldn't explain. She seemed sad and withdrawn in ways she wasn't with his bird self. Slowly, he stopped asking.

His human self he reserved for Aurora, who was as much his child as Maleficent's. They had raised her over the years far more than the annoying pixies, and her returns to the Moors were quickly becoming the light of his existence. They reminded him to smile and laugh, at ease with his legs and arms in a way he couldn't seem to be when she was gone. At the same time his mistress drifted further and further away.

Aurora eventually married Phillip, and they were expecting a child of their own. As the days drew in and winter beckoned, her visits to the Moors had to stop to accommodate her pregnancy. Without that giving him a reason to change shapes, Diaval let his feathers be his permanent form again. Maleficent said nothing on the subject aside from the occasional query to be sure he hadn't wanted to shift.

He always flew by her side, and for a long time the faerie did not consider his behavior unusual. He had been her constant companion for years, and the patterns of their days were so regular that she forgot for long stretches of a time that he had not returned to human form.

"Diaval?" she called one morning as she woke, stretching her wings as best she could around the branches of the tree she'd made her home in.

The raven cawed in response, allowing her to locate him. He was perched on one of the uppermost boughs, wings folded tightly around him as his little body quaked in the cold. Surprised, she reached out in an attempt to bring him closer for warmth, but he fluttered away. Losing her patience, she snapped her fingers and watched as his newly grown body fell from the tree with a loud thud.

"That wasn't very nice," he said as he got to his feet. His voice was low and raspy, hoarse from going so long unused.

"Neither was ignoring me. What's wrong with you?" 

"Nothing." He turned away as he brushed dirt and dead leaves from his clothes. Satisfied he'd done the best he could, Diaval began to walk off.

"Diaval?" Her wings extended to their full length and she floated from the tree to land beside him. "Why won't you talk to me?"

That finally got his attention. The raven-man rounded on her suddenly. She had to stop just as quickly to avoid a collision. "You're the one who hasn't been talking to me!"

"What are you talking about?!" she demanded. "I always talk to you!"

"Not like this!" he screeched. "You'll talk to me as a bird, all right, but ever since you saved Aurora you'll barely even look at me when I'm a man. You made me this way and yet you hardly acknowledge me!"

Maleficent froze, stunned. In all their years together, Diaval had only been sharp with her a time or two, and he had never been so blatant in his accusations. "I don't know what you mean," she started to counter, but he was quick to interrupt.

"Don't you? You'd turn me back, but then you would just be quiet until I needed to fly again. Once I was a raven you didn't seem to have a problem."

Not knowing what else to do, she let him walk away. The cold would drive him to seek shelter for a few hours; she would have to figure out what to do by then. There were only two people in the whole world she valued, and she couldn't stand leaving one of them angry with her.

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She felt his approach that night more than anything.

"The last time I let a man close to me," she said, slow and considering, "he betrayed my trust and took my wings."

"I'm not a man."

"You're as much a man as you are a bird. The bird is easier; he doesn't make me afraid. I don't know how to trust anyone, Diaval. Even you and the little beastie, despite knowing neither of you would hurt me."

"You've trusted me by your side for all these years. Why did that change?"

"You were my servant. I knew as long as you owed me a debt, I wouldn't have to worry. Now you've saved my life too and I don't know what to do."

Diaval sighed, and from the corner of her eye she saw him run both hands through his hair. "I'm not Stefan, Maleficent."

"I know that." She looked out over the Moors, trying to find the words she needed to form her explanations. She would see Aurora only rarely as she dealt with the pressures of ruling two kingdoms and raising her child. Diaval was all she had. "I'm sorry, though."

He didn't reply for a long time, and she started to think he would leave after all. That changed when she heard him wrestling his way back up the tree. She turned automatically to offer him a hand, but he ignored it and pushed on until he was sitting on the limb beside her. His dark eyes studied the Moors as she had, but he remained stubbornly silent, forcing her to speak.

"You could break me," she said finally. "You and the little beastie both. If anything happened to either of you I would never recover. Stefan –" and she spat the name like a curse "– he took everything that was precious to me and sullied it. I'm afraid it might happen again."

Diaval watched her with a bird's unblinking stare for a long time before smirking. "I know all that, Maleficent. I was looking for something more along the lines of 'I need you, Diaval' or 'I can't do it without you, Diaval'."

"Do you want to be a wolf again?"

He grimaced in distaste. "Of course not, but that's really all I wanted to hear. I know you've had your troubles, and I'll not ask about them. I just stopped feeling like you wanted me here, so I was going to stay out of your way as much as possible. I wanted you to be happy."

After a moment of shocked surprise, Maleficent gifted him with one of her rare true smiles, which he returned in kind.

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Aurora came to the Moors in the spring, baby in her arms. The Fair Folk all around her clamored with their greetings and congratulations, but there were two people she had to see before she shared her joy with the rest of her subjects.

She found her godmother sleeping on the banks of the river, her head on Diaval's chest as he did the same.

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AN: Love it? Hate it? Please let me know, and if you have any questions be sure to ask them. I do my best to respond to any I get. Till next time!


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